Lifelong Learning through Distance Education for Rural Schools in

Asian Journal of Distance Education
http://www.AsianJDE.org
© 2010 The Asian Society of Open and Distance Education
ISSN 1347-9008 Asian J D E 2010 vol 8, no 2, pp 59 - 64
Lifelong Learning through Distance Education
for Rural Schools in Malaysia
Cindy HIEW, Fauziah Haji Abdul AZIZ, & Rozhan Mohammed IDRUS
Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia
[email protected]
ABSTRACT :
This paper investigates the role of distance education in encouraging lifelong learning among
rural students on the West Coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Two national secondary schools, Sekolah
Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Badin and SMK St. John in the Tuaran district, West Coast of
Sabah, were chosen for this study. At the preliminary stage of the study, a total of 64 selected
rural students were given questionnaires regarding their opinions on their science learning
experiences. There were five questions pertaining to lifelong learning which were included in
the questionnaires. Students were given teaching and learning modules on one of the Form 2
(year 8) science chapters. At the end of the study, these students were given the questionnaire
as feedback forms pertaining to the researcher's teaching method. An analysis of the
questionnaire revealed two salient findings : 84 percent of the respondents were interested in
science, and 88 percent wanted to learn science in depth, other than using the text book.
Meanwhile, a comparison between the students' pre- and post- written test marks showed an
improvement over 40 percent, and this correlated with the majority who expressed great
interest, through the questionnaires, in science-related activities. Based on the questionnaire
feedback, 93 percent were inspired to pursue science courses in universities. This indicated that
the students intended to make science-related subjects as their priority in earning a degree and
thereby obtain science-based jobs after graduation.
1. INTRODUCTION :
their willpower to study. Motivated children
have the tendencies to experiment “that will
lead to occupational success in the 21st
century and benefit the positive evolution of
society” (Wlodkowski, 1991). Tengku
Abdul Aziz’s findings to predict academic
achievement of rural children (1989) also
echoed Wlodkowski’s outcomes, with the
addition of home environment and parents’
academic support.
Based on the figures presented by the
United Nations Development Program
[UNDP], only five percent or 107,115
Sabah secondary students pursued tertiary
education (2007). However, no official data
were given regarding the number of,
specifically, Sabah rural secondary students
enrolled into universities and colleges. These
Malaysia endorses the motto “Education
for Life” for its citizens (Yip Kai Leong,
1997), which empowers Malaysians to
create a purposeful life with the knowledge
they gain. Education for life also means “to
embrace the whole of society and the entire
lifespan of the individual” (Faure, 1972),
linking to lifelong learning. Lifelong
learning in the Malaysian context is
associated with obtaining diplomas,
certificates or degrees from higher learning
institutions (Gan, 2005). What motivates
individuals to pursue higher education?
According to Wlodkowski (1991), during
their school-going days, they were inspired
by their own cultures, families, schools and
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HIEW, AZIZ & IDRUS
2. METHODS :
students were at risk of not continuing their
education until the tertiary levels, as one of
the reasons would be the lack of parental
participation (Boylan & Rahman, 1996).
An eminent Malaysian educationist,
Professor Awang Had Salleh (1983), stated
that poverty results in low educational
achievement. Due to their very low level of
education, poor rural parents could not
assist in their children's school-works. In
addition, their children may also be needed
to accompany them to perform traditional
village occupations such as chili farming
(UNESCO, 2001), paddy and rubber trees
planting, as well as small-scale fishing
(Abdullah, Aziz & Mohamad, 1987).
Parents whose children excelled in their
studies were more interested in gaining
formal education.
United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) stated that
72 percent of the schools in Sabah are
situated in rural areas. The Sabah Education
Department stated that 20.5 percent of
Tuaran's population , the chosen rural
district, live in poverty (ibid, 2007).
Therefore, one way to encourage lifelong
learning among Sabah rural secondary
students is through distance education. In
the United States of America (USA), many
school districts incorporate distance
education for various courses. For example,
students would study foreign languages via
videoconferencing, cable TV and satellite
courses to listen and repeat after the
instructors’ guidance (Hannum, Irvin,
Banks & Farmer, 2009). In Australia,
courses
correspondences
played
a
significant role for rural students to study
crucial primary school subjects in the 1900s
(Barlow, 1922). Direct teaching via radio
had stimulated rural students’ interest in
education, whether in the Australian
interiors (Higgins, 1993) or in rural
Mongolia (Lockheed & Hanushek, 1988).
The focus of this study was on the rural
secondary students of Tuaran on the West
Coast of Sabah. Though there are other
Sabah districts which have higher poverty
rates than Tuaran, this study takes into
account the availability of the researchers’
work schedules to travel and teach the rural
students on a regular basis, which will be
elaborated in the Methods section.
Two secondary schools in the West Coast
of Sabah were selected for this study,
namely Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan
(SMK) Badin and SMK St. John. Tuaran is
chosen because it is 40 to 50 minutes from
Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah and is
reachable by any transportation. In addition,
the traveling times and the module teaching
periods, needed to be planned meticulously.
Both schools’ authorities revealed that other
researchers had previously conducted
studies at their respective schools, thus
easing procedures to obtain permission to
conduct this study. The chosen students
consisted of 27 hostel students of SMK
Badin, and 37 of students from the top
Form 2 class of SMK St. John. The methods
were modeled on previous researches
conducted respectively in Alaska, USA
(Lipka & Adams, 2004); Ludhiana, India
(Singh, 2002) and Victoria, Australia
(Critchley, DeWitt, Khan & Liaw, 2007).
The distance education mode used in this
study was a module. It is a compilation of
organized learning units, all in a book, for
students to read, carry out activities and
answer self-tests at their own pace (Latiff,
Ahmad & Taib, 1983).
The experimented students were tested
preliminary using their respective Science
teachers’ questions, and the marks obtained
were categorized as Pre-Test marks in this
study. These results were later used to
compare with the Post-Test marks obtained
at the end of the module teaching session.
The researcher taught at both schools six
times (late February 2009 until late March
2009), with each session lasting for two
hours. At the preliminary stage of the study,
students were given questionnaires through
their science teachers, consisting of 40
Likert-scale questions with the scale range
of one (Very Disagree) to five (Very
Agree). These questions were modeled
based on The Colorado Learning Attitudes
about Science Survey, which were given to
5000 American students, to gauge their
perceptions on physics. The word “physics”
was changed to “science” to suit the Form 2
syllabus of the experimented students.
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ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION
The students had to answer and hand
them back to the researcher during the first
session. They were taught face-to-face
using the teaching Form 2 science module
focused on “Light” (“Cahaya” in the Malay
language). During the teaching sessions,
students were rewarded with small gifts as
encouragement to answer the researcher’s
questions. They were also provided with
inexpensive tools to carry out three of the
module’s experiments entitled “Shadows
Drama” as shown in Figure 1, “Is the Light
Moving in a Straight Line?” and “Bubble
Show” also shown here in Figure 2 below,
to investigate the physics of light refraction
and light reflection.
After completing the module, the students
were assessed in the following week, using
a questionnaire with 20 objective questions
and 3 subjective questions, to gauge their
understanding on the topic. Finally, they
were given feedback forms pertaining to the
teaching module used during the
researcher’s teaching session.
Figure 1. The “Shadow Drama” session, where students told a story with hand shadows
Figure 2. The treated students used plastic lids to create medium-sized bubbles.
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HIEW, AZIZ & IDRUS
3. RESULTS :
The experimented group's Pre-Test mean
mark was at 32.02 percent. After applying
the module, the group’s mean marks for
Post-Test increased to 72.63 percent, a
difference of 40.61 percent. This result was
expected as the research by Lipka & Adams
(2004) also showed an improvement in an
experiment on rural treated students'
academic performance, with an increased
average mark between 30.21 percent to
37.19 percent. In addition, a research paper
by Singh (2003) reported that his
experimented
students
had
gained
“significantly in knowledge after going
through two teaching and learning modules
in Physiology and gave positive feedbacks
about them”.
Meanwhile, inn the post study feedback
forms, 93 percent of the students expressed
interest in furthering their studies in science
related fields when they reach tertiary level.
This expectation matches that of Critchley
and researchers’ observation (2007) where
70 percent of the participants who used a
learning module on rural health issues
reported an increase interest in the topic,
while 47 percent expressed interest in
serving the rural areas.
Five questions from the preliminary study
questionnaire pertaining to lifelong learning
were analyzed. The first question, “I am not
satisfied until I understand why something
works the way it does”, garnered 73 percent
agreement. The main key to learning
science is interest. The deeper the need to
comprehend a science phenomenon, the
more curious students will be. This
supported by a study conducted at seven
Australian secondary schools by Bryce &
Withers (2003) who found a strong
correlation between curiosity and the level
of understanding with a value of 0.757. In
addition, a random telephone survey
conducted on Californian residents in the
United States revealed that 43 percent
believed “science understanding was
primarily acquired for reasons related to
personal interest, need and/or curiosity
(Falk, Storksdieck & Dierking 2007).
Next, majority of the experimented
students (84 percent) professed their interest
in science and 54 students (84 percent)
answered positively to the third question
“Almost everyone will know science in
depth if they work hard to find the
solutions”. The fourth question, “Learning
science has altered my idea in how this
world functions” was agreed by 70 percent
of students. This finding is crucial as
Hapkiewicz (1992 ; 1999) and Berthelsen
(1999) listed out numerous scientific
misconceptions conceived by selected
science students and also adults. Among the
inaccurate conceptions were “Light is not
necessary to see since we can see a little in
a dark room”, “Light travels from the eyes
to the object”, “Sunlight is different from
other sources of light because it contains no
color” and lastly, “Moon and sun are about
the same size”.
This study discovered 88 percent
wanted to learn more about science in depth
(other than using the science text book).
The Colorado Learning Attitudes about
Science Survey discovered that the
possibilities of an American student taking
science as a major subject highly correlates
with one’s personal interest survey scores
(Adams, et al., 2006).
4. CONCLUSION :
The results have shown that distance
education, through module usage, have
significantly improved the selected rural
students’ academic performances and also
their interest in science due to the more
casual, and two-way communication
between students and teacher. This study is
vital, as it could give hope to rural students
to break the chain of poverty, as well as to
cultivate a desire for gaining knowledge as
part of their lifelong learning. If more
experts in science-related backgrounds
could contribute their knowledge to develop
easy-to-use modules, the prospects of
Malaysian rural distance education can be
widened, and in the end, benefit rural
society.
The students' positive responses indicate
a good sign for lifelong learning. With a
science-related background to rely on after
they graduated from higher institutions, they
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Acknowledgements :
The researcher would like to thank the
Ministry of Science and Technology
Innovation (MOSTI) for the financial aid
given to fund this research. Also, note of
appreciation to Universiti Malaysia Sabah,
and the head of Sabah Education
Department, Datuk Normah Gagoh, and
participating schools, for permitting the
researcher to enter the foregoing schools to
carry out the module testing.
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Cindy HIEW is a research student in the Department of Physics Distance Education, at the
Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia. Email : [email protected]. Fauziah Haji Abdul
AZIZ is at the School of Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Email :
[email protected]. Rozhan Mohamed IDRUS is Professor at the School of Distance
Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Email : [email protected].
For copyright / reproducing permission details, email : [email protected]
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